BallinStadt - Port of Dreams - Part 2

For the the introduction to BallinStadt, please look here.

Upon leaving building 1 with ticket in hand I headed to the main exhibition, located in building 2.  The photographs and documents to look at were numerous.  Many items had English explanations, which was very helpful, and there were "telephones" you listened into to hear an "emigrant" tell their story.

I was most interested in those that were near the years my ancestors left Germany.  Hearing of the trials and tribulations faced and the courage shown was amazing

There were a bunch of advertisements from the eighteen and nineteen hundreds on going to America and New York.  I bought a couple postcards featuring these and there are also posters available in the gift shop.

The "ship of dreams" is the next portion of the building.  Questions are on poles on either side of the ship, with answers written on the ship.  My favorite answer to "What are you taking with you?" is hope.  People left their homelands, family, friends, all they had ever known with the hope of a better life in America.  It was not easy.  Even getting to Hamburg from where ever they were from was an adventure.  They then had to wait in the emigration halls until their ship arrived, take a multiple week boat ride across the Atlantic, pass the examinations in New York City and, possibly, take a train to their final destination further inland in America.  We complained over the 7.5 hour flight with 2 layovers.  I cannot even imagine the fortitude and determination these people had.  Hope would be the only way you could survive.  After walking around the boat you enter building 3, which I will talk about in my next post.